The ACLU is challenging a California law that requires police to collect the DNA of all suspected felons.  Michael Risher an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer told the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco court Tuesday that the government should not be allowed to take the “genetic blueprint” of someone who hasn’t been convicted of a crime.  One-third of the 300,000 Californians arrested on felony charges each year are never convicted.  This does not stop the police from talking a DNA sample.

Risher said the voter-approved law allowing DNA testing after all felony arrests sacrifices privacy in exchange for questionable gains in identifying criminals.  The three-judge panel questioned whether DNA sampling is a major invasion of privacy.  They did, however, indicated that the California law may be vulnerable because of a year-old ruling in another case.  The case in question was decided by the federal appeals court in June 2009 ruling in a case from Las Vegas. In that case 2-1 decision said police violated the constitutional ban on unreasonable searches when they extracted DNA from a man who was under arrest – but was not suspected of any other crimes – so they could enter it into a criminal database.

Judge Milan Smith said DNA testing, taken with a swab from the inner cheek, is no more intrusive than fingerprinting and is “a really good way of identifying people.” He said Risher was asking government officials to be “Luddites (who) can’t use modern technology.”

If the California case is similar, “our hands are tied” and the court must overturn the law, Smith told Deputy Attorney General Daniel Powell, the state’s lawyer. Smith said the state would have to ask the full 27-judge court to order a new hearing before a larger panel, which would have the authority to overturn the Nevada ruling.

Powell argued that the current case is different because California has a law that authorizes post-arrest DNA testing and Nevada does not. He also said the California law protects privacy by making it a crime to release DNA information to anyone but a law enforcement officer.

In a news conference before Tuesday’s hearing, Attorney General Jerry Brown proclaimed the benefits of DNA evidence as “the fingerprint of the 21st century” and a powerful crime-fighting weapon. “This is no more a violation of privacy than you have when you give up your fingerprints,” he said.

The opinions in this article are not necessarily those of DNA Identifiers, the Blog Owners or Authors.

An arrest was made Wednesday June 7, 2010 of 57 year old   Lonnie David Franklin Jr. He has been charged with 10 counts of murder and one count of attempted murder. The killings include one man and the remainder, young black women. The “Grim Sleeper” moniker was applied by law enforcement due to a long, 14 year lull between murders from 1988 to 2002.

Franklin was reportedly a mechanic for a Los Angeles Police Department station near the center of the 1980’s murder spree. The majority of the killings were confined to a 2 mile radius in South Los Angeles, just a few miles east of the Hollywood Park Race Track. Several detectives, led by Dennis Kilcoyne, have been working full time on this case for years. ABC News reports that, although there were many suspects identified, they failed to zero in on Franklin. A newly adopted technique called familial matching provided the much needed clues to this investigation.

In April of 2008, California adopted an aggressive approach to a controversial crime fighting technique known as familial or “partial match” searching. The policy is aimed at identifying a suspect through DNA collected at a crime scene by looking for potential relatives in the states database. State Atty. General, Jerry Brown said the new approach was justified by violent crime plaguing California (2000 homicides per year), and said, “It would be used only when other leads had been exhausted”.

Partial or familial matching has been done in Britain for years with a 10-14% rate of catching perpetrators. The United States government employed a variation of this process in Kansas supporting the apprehension of Dennis Radar, the self described “BTK” serial killer.

In the case of Mr. Franklin, the suspect’s son was arrested and convicted in a felony weapons charge and swabbed for DNA in 2009. After being added to the California database, detectives were alerted regarding a partial match to evidence found at the “Grim Sleeper” crime scenes. Upon investigation of Franklin relatives a match was found to Lonnie Franklin.

Leicester Bryce Stovell a solo legal practitioner in the District of Columbia,  alleges that is is the father of LeBron James and that the athlete and his family have been involved in a cover-up to deny paternity by committing fraud and misrepresentation.  He has  filed the lawsuit on his own behalf and is asking for unspecified millions of dollars in damages.

In the complaint, filed June 23, Stovell says, “I recently have concluded that a comprehensive, sophisticated and well-funded effort might well have been underway for quite some time, perhaps beginning in its present form as early as when defendant LeBron James was in high school, to frustrate identification of his real father, and that there is a likelihood that the father in question is me.”

The lawsuit claims Stovell met James’ mother, Gloria, in a Washington bar and restaurant in 1984, where she was visiting from Ohio. She was 16 at the time, Stovell says, and they had sex only once.  Stovell says he was informed by Gloria James months later that she was pregnant. He claims she told him the child would be named LeBron.

Stovell says he has been trying for three years to establish paternity. Public records show Stovell is a former government attorney with the Securities and Exchange Commission. He filed a lawsuit in 2002 against the agency, alleging racial discrimination. Federal court records show the case was settled when the commission paid him $230,000, while not admitting fault.

A call to LeBron James’ attorney, Frederick Nance of Cleveland, Ohio, was not immediately returned.

72 more fragments of human remains have been found in the rubble or the World Trade Center after almost 9 years.  The fragments consist mainly of tiny pieces of bone were found during the process of sifting of tonnes of earth and debris recovered from Ground Zero.

Two truckloads of debris had not yet been forensically examined.  The fragments were large enough that they could be easily identified.  The new debris, the last taken from the rubble of the towers that had yet to be combed, was uncovered as construction work made new parts of the site accessible.

The New York medical examiner’s office said that DNA testing would be carried out.  They added that they hoped it would provide positive identification for the families of the victims.

At this time about 1,00 of the nearly 3,00 people who perished in the 9/11 attacks have yet to be formally identified.

The city began a renewed search for human remains in 2006. More than 1,800 remains have been found at this time.

A new study failed to provide answers after pursuing a genetic explanation for why one identical twin developed multiple sclerosis while the other stayed healthy.  Researchers created complete genetic blueprints for a pair of  identical twins, looking for differences that might explain why one developed multiple sclerosis and the other did not. According to researchers there were no traces of a discrepancy in the twins’ DNA.  Scientists found no smoking gun when they compared amount of gene activity between the twin with multiple sclerosis and the twin without. The results appear in a study published on April 29 in Nature.

According to Stephen Kingsmore, a geneticist at the National Center for Genome Resources in Santa Fe, N.M., and leader of the new study, “We looked under a lot of rocks and we found no differences that we could replicate.” Kingsmore went on to say that the findings “points to some novel environmental trigger that must be very important to the disease. We don’t know what it is.”

This study was small; it examines only three pairs of identical twins and  one type of immune cell known to be involved in multiple sclerosis. A telling difference between sickness and health might be found in other types of cells, says Esteban Ballestar of the Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute in Barcelona, Spain.  Ballestar went on to say, “They are closing a door here, but I think, perhaps, the door should be open.” Multiple sclerosis is a disease where the immune system attacks and damages the myelin sheath that helps speed electrical communication between nerves, this is the equivalent of scraping the coating away from an electrical wire. The damage results in pain and symptoms such as loss of coordination and vision.

In the study, Kingsmore and his colleagues determined the entire genetic makeup of the immune cells called T cells from the female twin who had developed multiple sclerosis at age 30 and from her twin who had remained healthy. It was important that the twins were now old enough that the healthy one is not likely to develop the disease.

Identical twins share the same genetic makeup (it is believed that they have identical DNA), and the researchers confirmed that both women carried variants of genes already known to increase the risk of getting multiple sclerosis. Scientists had thought that maybe the sick twin had developed an additional mutation in her DNA that finally triggered the disease. But the team found no such mutations.

With the stroke of Gov. Ted Strickland’s pen on April 6, 2010, experts say Ohio now has some of the best laws in the country to protect the innocent from wrongful convictions and put the right people behind bars.

Strickland, joined by a handful of men who were exonerated after serving years in prison for crimes they did not commit, signed Senate Bill 77. It sets statewide standards for retaining biological evidence, requires the taking of DNA from anyone arrested on a felony charge and requires new procedures for suspect lineups.

Goodman introduced the bill after a Dispatch investigation in January 2008 exposed widespread shortcomings in Ohio’s DNA law, including the derailing of prisoner DNA tests by systemic indifference or hostility.

In addition to requiring that DNA samples be taken from anyone convicted of a felony after July 1, 2011, the new law:

•Requires law-enforcement agencies to retain biological evidence for up to 30 years in murder and sexual-assault cases. The limit is five years when a defendant pleads guilty.

•Opens DNA testing to parolees and those on the sex-offender registry.

• Mandates blind suspect lineups, in which the officer presiding either does not know the identity of the true suspect or uses a photo-lineup technique in which only the witness can see pictures placed in folders.

•Gives an incentive for law-enforcement officials to record interrogations.
(excerpted from Jim Siegel of THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH)

Norh Robinson  84-year-old World War II veteran and a Mississippi farmer now living in a rural VA hospital, wants Oprah to participate in a paternity test that he says would once and for all prove that he is her father.  During a at his hospital, Robinson said that he met Oprah’s mom when they worked in the same part of Kosciusko and that he often drove her to and from work.

Robinson says that he has no interest in her money but that he would like to speak with Oprah as father and daughter before he dies.  Robinson claims that years ago, he tried to reach the talk-show queen to asked her to agree to a DNA test.  In an interview with The Post Robinson said, “I told her [in a letter], if she wanted, I’d give her one.”

In the letter, he placed mementos from his life, including his Social Security number and a picture of him from the Navy in World War II, he said.  “I never got no answer, I never did get no answer. If I did, it didn’t get to me, I’d like her to call me,” said the Wold War II Vet.

Oprah was raised by her mother, Vernita Lee, 75, and Lee’s longtime boyfriend, Vernon Winfrey. Oprah considers Vernon her father but has figured out he isn’t her biological dad.

When confronted on April 19th about the story, Oprah Winfrey was very upset when asked if she would undergo DNA testing to learn the identity of her biological father.  Oprah stated, “I will not be taking a paternity test, ever! I’ve never heard of him. I know who is claiming to be my real father.”

When Winfrey was asked what Robinson could possibly gain by lying about her lineage her only response was, “Get out of my face!” before pushing the Post reporter aside to jump into an SUV and head for lunch.

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I just came across an article distributed by the Slate discussing the above topic. This brought my thinking to the use of DNA and the idea of anonymity in general.

DNA testing makes them easy to trace
By Rachel Lehmann-Haupt Last Updated Monday, March 1, 2010, at 9:36 AM ET

When Donor 3066 signed up with the California Cryobank, he offered some basic information about himself on a piece of paper: that he had a BA in theater; that his mother was a nurse and his father was in the Baseball Hall of Fame; that his birthday was Sept. 18, 1968. He made it clear that he didn’t want to be found by signing a waiver of anonymity…

Donor 3066 was being sought out by Michelle Jorgenson, a 39-year-old waitress from Sacramento, Calif., whose daughter, Cheyenne, was born in 1998.  When her daughter turned 5, Jorgenson joined the Donor Sibling Registry and began searching for other mothers and donor offspring who used Donor 3066. She was concerned because her daughter was sensitive to sounds and walked on her toes, and she wanted to know if other half-siblings were displaying similar behavior. Through the registry, she met a number of other mothers and half-siblings. She discovered that two had autism and two others showed similar signs of sensory disorder…

Jorgenson began her search by approaching a mother in her group with a son named Joshua and suggested he do a cheek swab so she could explore his paternal roots through a Y chromosome test. The mother agreed. Through the test, Michelle learned about some of Joshua’s genetic markers. A few weeks of searching on the Family Tree DNA Web site using these markers led to two families with matching DNA. Through one of the families, she met a woman who mentioned that she found the obit of a relative who was a former baseball manager, and three children were listed. Michelle suspected that this might be her donor’s father, so she looked up the phone number of his listed son. When Michelle called the number, the deceased man’s son answered the phone. She began to ask him questions: Was your father in the Baseball Hall of Fame? Were you born in Illinois? Did you ever donate sperm? When the man said yes, she asked him if his birthday was Sept. 18, 1968. When he answered yes, she burst into tears. “You’re the biological father of my daughter,” she said. He was shocked but agreed to talk to Cheyenne on the phone—and eventually allowed the two to come visit him in Los Angeles.

Although in this case there appears to be a happy out come for all parties this is not always the case.  What about the request for privacy that Donor’s sign up for when they choose to remain anonymous?  Is that even something that clinic should offer since there is no guarantee that the donor can’t be found?  What are the options for men who do become donors?  There are many questions that are raised in this article and very few answers, partly because technology is growing at such a fast rate and party because it appears in the article many clinics are ignoring this issue of privacy.  Let us know what you think about this issue.

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio Baroque master’s death is surrounded in mystery, but that mystery may soon be solved thanks to DNA testing — as long as the right body can be found.

The caused of death for this famous painter in 1610 and the whereabouts of his corpse have always been unclear.  But a team of Italian anthropologists believe that what is left of Caravaggio’s body may be hidden among dozens of bodies buried in a crypt in Tuscany, thanks to recent historical clues.

The team using CAT scans and kits for carbon dating plan to study what they believe are the painter’s exhumed remains to discover how he died.  “If we are lucky enough to find Caravaggio’s skull, we will also be able to do a reconstruction of his face, just as we did in 2007 for Dante Alighieri,” Silvano Vinceti, head of the National Committee for Cultural Heritage, told Reuters.

The only images of the artist available until now have been self-portraits.  Scholars have put forward many theories about Caravaggio’s death. The most popular are that the painter was assassinated for religious reasons or collapsed with malaria on a deserted Tuscan beach.

However, in 2001 an Italian researcher claimed to have found the painter’s death certificate, which allegedly proved that he died in hospital.  “This historical document shows Caravaggio did not die alone on the beach but after three days in hospital, which means the body must have been buried in the San Sebastiano cemetery,” said Vinceti, referring to a Tuscan town near the city of Grosseto.

But in 1956, bodies buried at the tiny San Sebastiano graveyard were moved to a nearby town, Porto Ercole, and scholars hope that the remains of Caravaggio will be among them.

The team from the departments of Anthropology and Cultural Heritage Conservation at the universities of Ravenna and Bologna will have to examine the bones of between 30 and 40 people, selecting those that belong to young men who died at the beginning of the 17th century, to try and identify the painters remains.

“We will check the DNA extracted from the bones and teeth of possible matches against that of the painter’s male descendants,” Professor Giorgio Gruppioni, who will head the team, told Reuters.  “Sadly Caravaggio died childless,” said Gruppioni, “but his siblings had children whose relatives are still living in the northern Italian town that carries his name.”

Caravaggio, who pioneered the Baroque painting technique of contrasting light and dark known as chiaroscuro, is famed for his wild life. Legend has it that he was on his way to Rome to seek pardon for killing a man in a brawl when he died.

Based on the article by Ella Ide: DNA tests could solve mystery of Caravaggio’s death

Two weeks ago, the Supreme Court of California (January 25,2010) ruled 5-2 to authorize the use of “John Doe” DNA arrest warrants. California law, consistent with the US Constitution’s Fourth Amendment holds that prosecution for an offense commences when an arrest warrant is issued and “names or describes the defendant with the same degree of particularity required for a complaint.”

In a brief overview DNA.gov discusses the proper preparation of a John Doe DNA Warrant. It states that “if no offender match occurs in cases which statutes of limitation are an issue, consideration may be given, in consultation with the prosecutor to prepare a John Doe warrant. These types of warrants can identify the perpetrator according to his or her DNA profile. The 13 loci profile generated by the crime laboratory should be clearly printed on the face of the warrant”.

In a the case of Paul Eugene Robinson, a man charged with raping a Sacramento woman in 1994 a warrant was issued three days before the 6-year statute of limitation ran out in August of 2000, this warrant describing only the suspect’s DNA profile. That profile was then linked to Robinson through the California Department of Justice Laboratory SDIS system. Mr. Robinson had been convicted on sexual assault charges previously. {JURIST, Sarah Miley}

Supporters of the John Doe DNA indictments say it is a legitimate way to vindicate victims, prevent offenders from escaping justice, and prevent future crimes. Without the start of prosecution, a case cannot be tried once the statute of limitations has run. This means that if a suspect is identified one day beyond the statutory limit, he cannot be tried for the offense.

Critics argue that issuing an arrest warrant based on a DNA profile is a disingenuous device of the prosecution that evades the statute of limitations and infringes on the constitutional rights of the accused. In the dissenting opinion in the Robinson case, Judge Carlos Moreno stated “the warrant did not become effective until a fictitious name is replaced with the suspect’s real name, and at that point the statute of limitations had expired”.

While the John Doe warrant appears to be in place in California there are still many challenges for it to face before it becomes common practice.